USA > West Virginia > Randolph County > The history of Randolph County, West Virginia. From its earliest settlement to the present, embracing records of all the leading families, reminiscences and traditions > Part 22
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* See the " Monongahela of Old," by Veach.
t See Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington.
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people west of the mountains should be bound to the East by commerce and community of interest, or they would set up an independent republic, and enter into an alliance or union with the Spanish. He therefore urged that two canals be built, one by way of the Potomac and the Monongahela ; the other by way of the James and the Kanawha. In 1784, the year after peace was signed with England, he crossed the Alleghanies, and visited the Mon- ongahela, on a tour of observation, as well as to look after large tracts of land which he owned in the West. On his return he ascended Cheat River and crossed the mountains to Staunton. The wisdom of America's greatest man is shown no more in his success in war and his foresight in politics than in his wonderful grasp and understanding of the laws governing trade, and the effects of geography on the future history of a country. We who look back, and have the advantage of history, do not see any more clearly than Washington foresaw, the needs of bonds to unite the East and the West. And with equal foresight he mapped the most practicable routes for highways. The surveys made for the canal from Alexandria to the Mon- ongahela, forty years after, followed almost the identical line marked by Washington, including the roads across the mountains. The canal was never built further than Cumberland, because the invention of railroads by that time put a stop to canal building. When Washington began to urge the construction of a canal, he was opposed by the Maryland Assembly; but in 1784, when he returned to the prosecution of his scheme, Maryland joined Virginia, and in December of that year both made appropriations for open- ing a road "from the highest practicable navigation of the Potomac to that of the River Cheat or the Mononghela."" Washington was the first presi- dent of the canal company. He was given stock to the value of several thousand dollars in that company, and an equal amount in the canal to be constructed up the James River and down the Kanawha. He refused to receive either except on condition that he be permitted to devote his stock to some educational purpose. He did this in his will.
Having thus spoken of highways and proposed highways, between the Potomac River and the Upper Valley of the Ohio, it remains to be shown that these were not the only paths across the mountains. Those mentioned were of large, almost national importance ; the paths yet to be spoken of were of local importance only ; but so far as Randolph and Tucker counties are concerned, they were of more importance than the Braddock road ; be- cause the majority of the early settlers of Upper Cheat and of Tygart's Valley did not travel the Braddock road, but entered by trails further south, of which there were three important ones, and one of lesser import- ance. This latter was known as the Mccullough Trail. It passed from Moorefield to Patterson Creek, up that stream through Greenland Gap, in Grant County ; crossed over a spur of the Alleghanies to the North Branch, following the general line of the Northwestern pike to the head of the Little Youghiogheny, in Garrett County, Maryland, thence to the Youghio- gheny west of Oakland, and on to Cheat River near the Pennsylvania - line. But a branch from it led down Horse Shoe Run to the mouth of Lead Mine Run where it intersected another path to be spoken of later. This branch of the Mccullough Trail was occasionally traveled by early settlers on Cheat and the Valley River, but it was of minor importance. Another trail led up the North Branch of the Potomac to the head of that stream, where the
* See Hening's Statutes.
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Fairfax Stone was planted. Thence it crossed Backbone Mountain to the head of Lead Mine Run, about ten miles east of St. George, in Tucker County. It followed down Lead Mine to its mouth, thence down Horse Shoe Run, to Cheat River at the Horse Shoe, three miles above St. George. Thence one branch led down Cheat, across Laurel Hill to the Valley River below Philippi, in Barbour County. The other branch passed up Cheat to the vicinity of Parsons, Tucker County. Thence is passed, by a route not now definitely known, to the head of Leading Creek, in Randolph County, and thence to the settlements on Tygart's River. The geography of the country renders it probable that the path from Cheat to Leading Creek fol- lowed Pheasant Run. The majority of the settlers on Cheat River, above and below the Horse Shoe, came to the country by this trail, from the Potomac; and many of those who settled on Leading Creek did likewise ; but there was another path by which many of the early settlers of Ran- dolph entered the county. This will be spoken of presently. There is no record of the marking of the path by Fairfax Stone. It seems to have been there at the earliest visit of the whites, and was probably an Indian path or a buffalo trail across the mountain. It is known that not only the earliest settlers on Cheat, but also.some of the earliest on the Buckhannon River, and on the West Fork, entered the country by this path. The first white man to follow the trail was probably William Mayo in 1736. It is known that he ascended the North Branch in that year, and discovered the streams which have their sources on the western slope of the mountains-tributaries of Cheat River. History does not say how far westward he followed the streams ; probably not far. Nine years later other explorers ascended the North Branch to the present territory of Tucker County, and a map made of the region soon after is tolerably accurate. During the French and Indian war, from 1754 to 1759, it is believed that parties of Indians occa- sionally followed the path in their raids into Hampshire and Frederick Counties ; but it cannot be established positively that they did so.
Twenty miles south of the trail which led by way of Fairfax Stone, an- other path crossed the Alleghanies, known as the Shawnee Trail, and in later years sometimes called the Senaca Trail. The former name was given because it was traveled by Shawnee Indians, notably, by Killbuck's bands, in raiding the South Branch settlement. It was called the Senaca Trail be- cause, after reaching the summit of the Alleghany, it passed down Senaca Creek to the North Fork. The trail, beginning near Huttonsville, passed near Beverly and Elkins, tlience across the branches of Cheat River above the mouth of Horse Camp Creek ; thence to the summit of the Alleghany ; down Senaca on the eastern side to the North Fork. Thence one branch probably ascended North Fork to connect with another trail further south to be described presently; another branch passed down the North Fork to Petersburg and Moorefield where it intersected the McCul- lough Trail, or what was subsequently called the Mccullough Trail. Let it be understood that, although these trails were traveled by the early settlers, they were originally Indian paths, and had been traveled by the aborigines, time out of mind. The first settlers found them and used them. The Shawnee patlı was of great importance. It was the chief highway be- tween Tygart's Valley and the South Branch for a century. Hundreds of packhorses, laden with salt, iron and other merchandise, traveled it every year, and many a drove of cattle passed over it. During the Civil War it was frequently used by soldiers. Many of the horses and cattle captured
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by Imboden and Jones in their great raid of 1863, were sent across the mountains by that path. General Averell, who had command of Federal forces in this part of West Virginia, found it necessary to post strong pickets on the trail. A wagon road has since been made, following the general course of the path, and the old trail is no longer used, but it can still be followed, and traces of it will probably remain for a hundred years.
Fifty miles southwest of the Fairfax Stone another path crossed the mountain. It is difficult at the present day to ascertain the exact route by which it led from the Potomac to the head of Tygart's Valley River. For a portion of the way its location is well known. It passed up the South Branch of the Potomac to the mouth of the North Fork, in Grant County ; ascended that stream to the mouth of Dry Run, in the southwestern part of Pendleton County ; passed up Laurel Creek into Highland County, Virginia, and near where the Staunton and Parkersburg pike crosses that stream, the path turned toward the west, and ascended the Alleghany Mountain. It followed the dividing ridge, as is believed, between Deer Creek and Little Run, in Pocahontas County, a short distance, then descended the East Fork of Greenbrier River to the main river ; crossed it ; crossed Shaver's Moun-
. tain to the headwaters of Shaver's Fork of Cheat River; thence across Cheat Mountain to Tygart's Valley River. It will be seen that from the head of the North Fork to Tygart's Valley, the path deviated but little from the general course of the Staunton and Parkersburg pike. No person knows when this path was first used. Without doubt it dates back beyond the reach of history, and was followed by buffaloes and Indians before emi- grants and traders made it a highway across the mountains. It was prob- ably a branch of a famous Indian trail which came through Pennsylvania ; traversed Maryland east of Cumberland ; crossed the Potomac at the mouth of the South Branch ; ascended that stream to its headwaters. After reach- ing Tygart's Valley River, it intersected the Shawnee Trail near Huttons- ville, crossed to the head of the Little Kanawha, in the southern part of Upshur County, and followed that stream to the Ohio River. A tradition that the trail up the Little Kanawha, and thence across the mountains to the Potomac, was marked out by a squad of soldiers who escaped from Braddock's battle, in 1755, and made their way to the Little Kanawha, and up that stream, should be given little credence. It is impossible that any soldiers escaped by that route, and if they did, the trail is well known to have been in existence long before that date. *
A study of the physical features of the country, lying between the North Branch of the Potomac and the head of the South Branch, a region stretching fifty miles south west along the Alleghanies from Fairfax Stone, will show why so few paths crossed between the valleys on the east and those on the west. The country, embracing more than a thousand square miles, was and is one of exceeding difficulty to the traveler. Between the two points, Fairfax Stone and the head of the South Branch, the Alleghany
*There was another Iudian trail which led from Valley Bend, some six miles above Beverly, over Cheat Mountain by way of the head of Files Creek, thence crossing Cheat River at the mouth of Fishing Hawk, and from there by way of the Sinks of Gandy to the headwaters of the South Branch. There is a tradition that the Tygart family fol- lowed that trail when they fled from the Indians who had massacred the Files family in the winter of 1753-4. A trail led up the Great Kanawha, up the Elk to the mouth of Valley Fork in Randolph County, up Valley Fork, down Elk Water to Tygart's Valley. It is believed that no other place in West Virginia contaiued the meeting of so many trails as Tygart's Valley. It was, evidently, a favorite hunting ground for the Indians.
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Mountain and the parallel and crumpled ridges lying on both sides, are pushed together in rugged and stupendous masses; broken and cleft; steep and bleak; cut by ravines; battlemented by crags and pinnacles; and had all the jungles and thickets been removed, they would still have offered serious obstacles to the passage of the emigrant and explorer. But, added to the rocks and cliffs, the whole region, along the upper tributaries of Cheat River, over to the Greenbrier, was one unbroken wilderness of pines and tangled laurel. Nearly a century passed, after the settlement of the country on both sides, before roads were constructed through this wil- derness, even in the most favorable places. . And to this day there are scores of square miles where scarcely a cabin is to be seen. The dense beds of laurel even yet appall the hunter; and they are entered only when the lumberman's ax cuts the way, or where railroads slash and blast their lines through jungles and rocks. As late as 1861, when Garnett's army was defeated in Randolph County, and was cut off from retreat by the Stanton pike, it was compelled to make a detour of one hundred and twenty miles to pass round this trackless wilderness, when the distance was only one- half, could it have made its way directly across the mountains. Again, in November, 1862, when Imboden made a dash with 300 cavalry from Pendleton County to St. George, and was compelled to fall back, he saved his army from capture by overwhelming forces on nearly all sides, by taking refuge in the forests between Dry Fork and Shaver's Fork, where he was safe from pursuit.
It can be seen that the Mountain Wilderness was a barrier which the emigrant was able to cross at only three points-at the northern, at the middle, and at the southern extremity. While the stream of emigration was pouring into the Ohio Valley along the Braddock road, and along the Forbes road north of it, and while another stream of home seekers passed down the Kanawha, three obscure paths, hardly known then and now almost forgotten, conducted the hardy pioneer into the Valley of the Cheat and to the Tygart Valley, and to other valleys further west.
SETTLEMENTS AND MASSACRES.
Having seen some of the difficulties in the way of the early settlers of Randolph in reaching the country, it now remains to show what fate befell them, and the vicissitudes of fortune through which the infant colony passed. The first settlement on the waters of the Monongahela within the present territory of West Virginia, was made as early as 1753, possibly a year earlier. It was made by two families, Robert Files, or Foyle, where Beverly now stands, and by David Tygart, farther up the Valley, near the present site of the "brick house." From the one settler Files Creek takes its name, and from the other the River and Valley. It appears from contemporaneous records in Virginia that the proper spelling of the name was Foyle, not Files; but the latter spelling has been so long used that it will never be changed. The nearest neighbors of the emigrants lived on the South Branch, on the one side, at the mouth of the Youghiogheny, in Pennsylvania, on the other, while southward there were two white men living in the present territory of Pocahontas County, and a settlement still further south in Greenbrier County. It is stated by Withers, the earliest historian, that an Indian village was near the settlement. This was doubtless a mis- take. No Indian town is known to have been in that part of West Virginia at the time under consideration. Bulltown, on the Little Kanawha, in the
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present County of Braxton, about fifty miles from this settlement, was probably meant .* It was near enough to have been considered danger- ously near; but, fortunately, the village was not there at that time. It was not founded until about twelve years afterwards, when a Delaware chief, Bull, with five families came there and settled. They were from Orange County, New York, and were living in New York as late as 1764, at which time Bull was arrested, charged with taking part in Pontiac's con- spiracy, was carried to New York City and subsequently was released and he moved with his families to Bulltown, and remained about five years. The settlers from Hacker's Creek, in Lewis County, destroyed the town in 1772. It is further stated by Withers that an Indian trail passed near the settlement. This was no doubt the path up the Little Kanawha and down the North Fork of the Potomac, already mentioned, or that branch, called the Shawnee Trail, which led into Pendleton County. t
During the season of 1753 the two families in Tygart's Valley not hav- ing raised enough corn for their bread, and also probably having some uneasiness on account of the growing hostility of the Indians and French, decided to leave the country for the present. This was late in De- cember, 1753, or early in January, 1754, as inferred from Governor Din- widdie's account of the affair. But they had delayed their departure too long Indians appeared at the Files cabin and murdered him, his wife and five children. One son, who was not at the house, escaped. The youngest child killed was ten years old. The boy who escaped fled to Tygart's house about two miles up the valley and gave the alarm in time for the family to escape. The Indians who did this deed were returning, as is said, from a raid on the South Branch where they had killed or carried into captivity a young man. The date of the Files murder has long been dis- puted. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, in his speech to the Assembly, February 14, 1754, refers to it and says it was "no longer ago than last month," which would place it in January, 1754. On February 4, 1754, the bodies of the murdered settlers were discovered by white people, and "they seemed to have been dead about two months." It is presumed that the dead were buried, although Withers says that in 1772 a man named West- fall found the bones and buried them.
*It is not improbable that the Indian village referred to by Withers, was supposed by him to occupy a site 32 miles south of Beverly, on Mingo Run, a small tributary of Tygart's River. Old settlers supposed, and present inhabitants of the vicinity maintain, that when the country was first visited by white people the Mingo Indians occupied a town at that place, and from them Mingo Run, Mingo Knob and Mingo Flats were named. However, it is morally certain, if not absolutely so, that no Indian town existed at the place after the country became known to white men. That an Indian town once existed there, the proof is ample; and the same proof places the town long prior to the coming of the white people. As shown in a former chapter of this book, the Indian tribes once occupying West Virginia were driven out or exterminated by Mohawks from New York a century before the first white man's cabin was built west of the Alleghanies. The village on Mingo Run, therefore, must have ceased to exist as the permanent home of Indians not later than 1672, eighty years, at least, before Files built his cabin.
+R. G. Thwaites, who edited a new edition of Withers, speaks of this trail as the " Warrior Branch." The "Warrior Branch" crossed the Ohio River forty or fifty miles above Parkersburg, and passed from there into Pennsylvania, and at its nearest point it was fully one hundred miles from Tygart's Valley.
įIf the Indians who murdered the Files family were "returning from the South Branch," where they had "killed or carried into captivity a young man," it is probable the murder occurred early in the fall of 1753, instead of December of that year or Janu-
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After this, Tygart's Valley lay vacant for eighteen years. From 1754 to 1764 there was trouble with the Indians on the border most of the time, and it was an inauspicious time to plant settlements west of the mountains. So disastrous was the war that the settlements east of the mountains were pushed back to Winchester, with only a few forts between there and Cum- berland. The settlements on the Monongahela in Pennsylvania were broken up, and the Indians and the French held sway west of the Alle- ghanies. But when peace returned, in 1765, settlers began to cross the mountains. There was a considerable colony in Upshur County by 1769, and the outposts of the white settlers had reached the Ohio at Wheeling. But not till 1772 was a second attempt made to plant settlements in Ran- dolph County, and this colony was permanent. The Valley above and below Beverly had been visited from time to time by hunters and explorers, and the excellent quality of the land was well known. When it began to be taken, it went very rapidly, and in a short time it was all taken, for thirty miles up and down the river." Among the early settlers who took up land in 1772, were the names Haddan, Whitman, Wamsley, Warwick, Nelson, Stalnaker, Riffle and Westfall. In this year, 1772, settlements were made in Harrison, Lewis, Taylor; and settlements in Monongalia and Marion Coun- ties, made some years before, were in a flourishing condition. But so much could not be said for the colony in Upshur County; not that anything was lacking with the people or land; but so many new comers entered the county that corn was consumed and bread failed. The year 1773 was long known in Upshur County as "the starving year." Settlements in Tucker County were made about the same time by the Parsonses, Minears, Coopers, Goffs, Camerons and Millers.
In 1774 came the Dunmore War, and the people in Randolph built two forts, Westfall's and Currence's. t These were simply large log houses, and chimneys on the inside to prevent Indians from climbing to the roof. Holes were made for shooting through. No Indians gave trouble in the Valley
ary 1754. The only prisoner known to have been carried away from the South Braneh about that time was a boy named Zane. In Washington's Journal of his Mission to the French in Western Pennsylvania, he speaks of a boy who had recently been carried to that country from the South Branch, by Indians. Washington wrote this on November 25, 1753, and the boy had been carried away some time before that. If the captors of Zane were the murderers of the Files family, the murder oeeurred not later than October, 1753. The proof is far from positive, but very probably the murder oeeurred about that time. It is not likely that Indians would have made a journey through the mountains in midwinter-Deeember or January. If Files had not raised enough corn for bread, and contemplated a return to the settlements, he would not have waited till midwinter to make the trip. This strengthens the probability that the murder occurred in the fall.
*For more speeifie information as to how and when lands were taken up in Ran- dolph, see an artiele in this book headed "Old Land Patents."
+The Currence Fort was evidently the "Casino's" Fort spoken of in Withers' Border Warfare. There was no fort in Randolph County named "Casino's." The Currence Fort stood one-half mile cast of Criekard, in Tygart's Valley. Many years after the Indian wars the fort was torn down and the logs were used in building a residence which was occupied half a century. In 1873 the house was torn down, and the logs were used in building an abutment in the river to keep the bank from washing. Some years later a flood carried the logs away, after they had seen service more than one hundred years. The Westfall Fort stood a quarter of a mile south of Beverly. Nearly a century ago it was torn down and re-built on the bluff where D. R. Baker now lives. It still stands in a good state of preservation, and probably it is the only Indian fort now standing in West Virginia, although the ruins of several are still pointed out. It was built in 1774 and is now (1898) 124 years old.
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that year, although they prowled about the fort built in the Horse Shoe, in Tucker County, until they so alarmed the settlers that they abandoned their colony and retreated to the South Branch. The people in Randolph proba- bly owed their safety to their vigilance. They kept scouts in the mountains watching all the paths by which Indians would be likely to enter the coun- try. On the first intimation of danger, the settlers locked themselves in their forts. Indians seldom made an attack when they knew the people were prepared for them. The war closed in the fall of 1774 and there was peace until 1777, when the Revolutionary War commenced. The British induced the not unwilling Indians to take arms against the western settlers. There was much alarm along the borders. The people of Randolph repaired their forts, and again practiced the caution which had stood them so well three years before. They sent scouts to watch Indian paths. The first misfortune of the war, affecting Randolph County, befell two of these scouts, Leonard Petro and William White. They were watching the path up the Little Kanawha, perhaps in Braxton County. Late one evening they shot an elk. Scouts watching Indian trails fired guns only when necessary to procure food, as the report might betray them to Indians. Such hap- pened on the present occasion. A party of Indians were near, and hearing the gun, sought out the camp of the scouts and prepared to attack them . At that moment White, who was awake, discovered them in the moonlight, and being too near to escape, he whispered to Petro to lie still. The next instant an Indian sprang upon them. White aimed a blow with his toma- hawk, but missed. He at once changed his tactics, and putting on a cheer- ful air, pretended that he had struck while half asleep, and had no wish to hurt Indians. He said he and Petro were on their way to join the Indians. His story might have deceived them had not the woeful face of Petro told a different story. It was plainly seen that he was not pleased with the situ- ation. The Indians tied them for the rest of the night, and in the morning, having painted Petro black, indicating that he was to be killed, they started with the prisoners and carried them to Ohio. Petro was never again heard of .* White stole a gun, killed an Indian who was on horseback, took the horse, and rode home, arriving in Randolph in November, 1777.
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